2023-2024 Season

OCTOBER 7, 2023 | 7:30PM | SHRIVER HALL

Tickets go on sale August 1, 2023

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Jed Gaylin, Music Director
Wendel Patrick, composer & piano

HSO kicks off the season with two ground-breaking icons. First, the orchestra will perform a brand-new piano concerto written and performed by Baltimore-based musician Wendel Patrick. In addition to being an Assistant Professor at Peabody, Wendel Patrick is a Baker Award winner, Harvard Nasir Jones Hip hop Fellow, acclaimed classical and jazz pianist, and multi-genre producer. To close, the orchestra will take on one of Tchaikovsky’s most beloved and powerful works, his Symphony No. 5.

WENDEL PATRICK: HSO Commissioned Work (world premiere)
PYOTR ILYICH TCHAIKOVSKY: Symphony No. 5

Wendel Patrick:

Wendel Patrick has been referred to as “David Foster Wallace reincarnated as a sound engineer” by Urbanite Magazine and as “wildly talented” by the Baltimore Sun. He has been referred to by XLR8R magazine as “a hip-hop producer that could easily make any fan of Squarepusher, Boards of Canada, or Madlib flip out.” The alter-ego of classical and jazz pianist Kevin Gift, Wendel Patrick is rapidly making a name for himself as a producer to be recognized. His five albums, Sound:, Forthcoming, JDWP, Passage, and Travel were all produced without the use of sampling, with Patrick playing every note of every instrument. What is perhaps most astounding and perplexing to listeners is that there are actually no instruments…he crafts all of the instruments, and every note, electronically.

Equally at home performing on stage with his band, behind two turntables, beatboxing, improvising, or playing a Mozart Concerto on stage with orchestra, Wendel Patrick has toured Europe on several occasions and performed throughout the world with renowned spoken word artist and poet Ursula Rucker (The Roots, 4 Hero). In 2014, Wendel Patrick traveled to Australia as a guest lecturer, speaking about music production and entrepreneurship in the arts at The Australian Institute of Music in both Sydney and Melbourne. In 2011, Wendel Patrick co-founded the Baltimore Boom Bap Society, with Erik Spangler (DJ Dubble8) that performs monthly improvised hip hop shows with hand picked musicians and emcees. The group’s collaborative performance with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra of Igor Stravinsky’s The Soldier’s Tale was recently named “Best Mesmerizing Performance of 2016” by Baltimore Magazine. Wendel Patrick’s music has also been heard across the country on NPR stations, most notably on Out of the Blocks, an award winning radio documentary program he co-produces with radio producer Aaron Henkin for NPR affiliate WYPR that has been featured by the Third Coast International Audio Festival and Hearing Voices as well as on the BBC. Upcoming performances include a new collaboration between the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and the Baltimore Boom Bap Society, on which Patrick’s music will be performed. An avid photographer and videographer, his photography has been exhibited in several art galleries including the Baltimore Museum of Art. Patrick shoots all of the accompanying documentary photography and videography for “Out of the Blocks “.

Wendel Patrick/Kevin Gift majored in both music and political science at Emory University and earned his M.M. in Piano Performance as a scholarship student at the Northwestern University School of Music in Evanston Illinois. Patrick is a winner of the 2015 Baker Artist Awards’ Mary Sawyers Baker grand prize, and was a full time faculty member at Loyola University in Baltimore, Maryland from 2001 to 2013 teaching piano, introduction to music theory, music history and electronic music production. He has taught at the Maryland Institute College of Art and currently teaches “Hip Hop Music Production: History and Practice” at The Peabody Music Conservatory, the first course of its kind to be taught at a major traditional music conservatory anywhere in the United States.

December 2, 2023 | 7:30pm | SHRIVER HALL

Tickets go on sale August 1, 2023

Sara Davis Buechner Plays Saint-Saëns
Jed Gaylin, Music Director
Sara Davis Buechner, piano

Spend a December evening listening to Romantic orchestral works with HSO. Be serenaded by the enchanting sounds of Camille Saint-Saëns’ Piano Concerto no. 2 performed by Sara Davis Buechner, who the NY Times hails for her “intelligence, integrity and all-encompassing technical prowess.” Finish off the evening with Johannes Brahms’ exhilarating first symphony.

CAMILLE SAINT-SAËNS: Piano Concerto No. 2—Sara Davis Buechner, piano
JOHANNES BRAHMS: Symphony No. 1

Sara Davis Buechner:

Noted for her musical command, cosmopolitan artistry, and visionary independence, Sara Davis Buechner is one of the most original concert pianists of our time. Lauded for her “intelligence, integrity and all-encompassing technical prowess” (New York Times), “thoughtful artistry in the full service of music” (Washington Post), and “astounding virtuosity” (Philippine Star), Japan’s InTune magazine sums up: “Buechner has no superior.”

In her twenties Ms. Buechner earned a bouquet of top prizes at the world’s premiere international piano competitions — Queen Elisabeth (Brussels), Leeds, Mozart (Salzburg), Beethoven (Vienna), and Sydney. She was a Bronze Medalist of the 1986 Tschaikowsky Competition in Moscow and the Gold Medalist of the 1984 Gina Bachauer International Piano Competition.

Ms. Buechner has performed in every state and province of North America — as recitalist, chamber musician and soloist with top orchestras like the New York Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony and Philadelphia Orchestra; and in venues such as Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center and the Hollywood Bowl. She has toured throughout Latin and South America and Europe; and she enjoys a special following in Asia, where she has been a featured soloist with the Sydney Symphony, New Zealand Philharmonic, New Japan Philharmonic and Shanghai Philharmonic, among many others.

She has commissioned and premiered important contemporary scores by composers such as Michael Brown, John Corigliano, Ray Green, Dick Hyman, Vitězslavá Kaprálová, Jared Miller, Joaquín Nin-Culmell, and Yukiko Nishimura. Ms. Buechner’s performance versatility extends to unique collaborations with film and dance (including tours with the Mark Morris Dance Group, and Japanese kabuki-mime-mask dancer Yayoi Hirano).

Ms. Buechner has released numerous acclaimed recordings of rare piano music by composers such as Rudolf Friml (“a revelation” — The New York Times), Dana Suesse, Joseph Lamb, Joaquín Turina, Miklós Rózsa, and Ferruccio Busoni (including the world première recording of the Bach-Busoni “Goldberg” Variations). Stereophile magazine selected her Gershwin CD as “Recording of the Month,” and her interpretation of Hollywood Piano Concertos won Germany’s coveted Deutsches Schauplatten Preis. Most recently her recorded traversal of the score to Carl Dreiser’s silent movie classic Master of the House (1925) may be heard on Criterion Collection DVD.

Sara Davis Buechner joined the faculty of Temple University’s Boyer College of Music and Dance in 2016, after previously teaching at the Manhattan School of Music, New York University and the University of British Columbia. She has presented masterclasses and workshops at major pedagogic venues worldwide, adjudicated important international piano competitions, and is also a contributing editor for Dover Publications International. In 2017 Ms. Buechner marked her 30th year as a dedicated Yamaha Artist.

As a proud transgender woman, Ms. Buechner also appears as a speaker and performer at important LGBTQ events, and has contributed interviews and articles about her own experience to numerous media outlets worldwide.

Sara is a dual American-Canadian citizen who makes her home in Philadelphia.

MARCH 2, 2024 | 7:30PM | SHRIVER HALL

WYPR & HSO PRESENT:
CLASSICAL MUSIC 4 PEOPLE W/ SHORT ATTENTION SPANS
Jed Gaylin, Music Director
Min Jin, tenor

WYPR and Hopkins Symphony Orchestra present an evening of orchestral classics. This hour-long concert will feature a curated variety of short but iconic works with commentary from WYPR hosts on stage with us. Sure to delight both steadfast orchestra-lovers and newcomers alike, this live performance will be aired on WYPR at a later date. If you’ve always wanted to check out an orchestra concert but didn’t know where to start, this is the night for you!

CHARLES IVES—The Unanswered Question

LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN—Leonore Overture no. 3

ALEXANDER BORODIN— In the Steppes of Central Asia

GIUSEPPE VERDI—La forza del destino Overture—Min Jin, tenor

RUGGERO LEONCAVALLO—”Vesti la giubba” from I Pagliacci—Min Jin, tenor

SILVESTRE REVUELTAS—Janitzio

PIETRO MASCAGNI—”Intermezzo sinfonico” from Cavalleria rusticana

GIACOMO PUCCINI—”Nessum dorma” from Turandot—Min Jin, tenor

Min Jin:

Tenor Dr. Min Jin has a versatile and wide-ranging career as a leading operatic tenor, recitalist, conductor, and voice professor. Praised for his easy lyricism, emotional intensity, and extraordinary top notes, Dr. Jin has delighted audienceswith concert and opera performances throughout the United States, South America, Italy, Canada, and South Korea.

He has appeared in many of the important concert venues in the United States such as Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Centeras a recitalist, opera performer, as well as an oratorio soloist with choral societies. His past opera performances include a leading role in La Boheme, Lucia di Lammermoor, Romeo et Juliette, Carmen, L’elisir d’amore, Magic Flute, La Rondine, La Traviata, Tosca, Manon, Werther, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, La Vera Costanza and several others withNew Jersey State Opera, Ann Arbor Opera, Aspen Opera, Rochester Mercury Opera, Dicapo Opera, Academic Opera,Mannes Opera, Eastman Opera, Grand Valley State University, Kwang Ju City Opera and Po Hang City Opera.

As an oratorio and chamber music soloist, he has been featured in Carmina Burana and Britten’s Serenade for Tenor, Horn, and Strings with the Finger Lake Music Festival and the Grand Valley State University. Other featured solo engagements have included Haydn’s Creation, The Seasons, Handel’s Messiah, Mozart’s Coronation Mass, Requiem, Dubois’s The Seven Last Word of Christ, Mendelssohn’s St. Paul, Elijah, Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis, Mass in C Major, and his Symphony No. 9, Frank’s Mass in A Op. 12, and Schubert’s Mass No. 2 in G, Mass in A-flat among others with Rochester Philharmonic, New Jersey Philharmonic, Russian National Symphony, Yucatan Sinfonia, Geneseo Symphony, Toronto Sinfonia, Toronto Philharmonia, Grand Rapids Symphony, Bay Atlantic Symphony, Eastman Philharmonic, Palisades Orchestra, Texas BC Orchestra and Quad City Symphony.

He was a first-prize winner of the Artist International Music Competition, the Korean Music Association Competition and a winner of the Heida Hermann International Voice Competition, the Oratorio Society Voice Competition, and the finalist in the Caruso International Voice Competition. He holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Vocal Performance from the Eastman School of Music.

As a music director, he currently serves as a principal conductor for the Washington Soloists Ensemble in Washington, D.C. and Bethel Church in Baltimore, Maryland. Previously, he served as a principal conductor for the Tedeum Choir in Chicago and Central Wesleyan Church in Holland, Michigan.

As a studio voice teacher, many of Dr. Jin’s students are awarded at voice competitions, festivals and young artist programs at the national and international levels.

Dr. Jin currently works as an Associate Professor of Voice at Towson University in Maryland. Previously, he has served on the faculty at the Grand Valley State University in Michigan.

APRIL 20, 2024 | 7:30PM | SHRIVER HALL

Bartók Concerto for Orchestra
Jed Gaylin, Music Director
HSO Concerto Competition Winners—TBD

Virtuosity takes front and center at our all-concerto season finale. Winners of our biennial Concerto Competition are followed by musical prowess from the full orchestra, performing Bartók’s well-loved and vibrant Concerto for Orchestra.

Performances by HSO Concert Competition Winners
BÉLA BARTÓK: Concerto for Orchestra

Jed Gaylin:

Jed Gaylin serves as Music Director of the Bay Atlantic Symphony (NJ), Johns Hopkins Symphony Orchestra, and Two Rivers Chamber Orchestra (WV). In addition, he is Principal Conductor of the Cape May Music Festival. Previous posts have included Principal Guest Conductor of the National Film and Radio Philharmonic (Beijing), Director of Orchestras of the Cervera International Music Festival and Summer Course (Spain), and Principal Guest Conductor of the Sibiu State Philharmonic (Romania), and Artist in Residence at Stockton University. In 2018, Mr. Gaylin was tapped by Eastman School of Music composer Carlos Sanchez-Gutierrez to conduct his Alla Balena Ensemble. ABE has performed at Eastman’s Kilbourn Hall, The Mexican Cultural Institute (Washington, DC), and Teatro Degollado in Guadalajara.

As a guest conductor, he has also worked with such prestigious orchestras as the St. Petersburg State Symphony Orchestra (Russia), Bucharest Radio Orchestra, Shanghai Conservatory Orchestra, Academia del Gran Teatre del Liceu (Barcelona), Eastman School of Music Broadband Ensemble, Lodz Philharmonic (Poland), Pomorska Philharmonic (Poland), Gnessin Institute Orchestra (Russia), Moscow Chamber Symphony, Orquesta Sinfonica de Guanajuato (Mexico), Orvieto Festival Orchestra (Italy), Naples Philharmonic (Florida), Symphony New Hampshire, Opera Vivente (Baltimore), Wheeling Symphony, and the Xinjiang Philharmonic.

Mr. Gaylin has numerous television and radio broadcasts to his credit including National Public Radio’s “Weekend Edition,” Voice of America (Europe and the former Soviet Union), WBJC (Baltimore), WWFM (NJ), Bucharest Radio Orchestra, and the National Radio and Film Philharmonic in Beijing.

He has collaborated with such celebrated soloists as Hilary Hahn, Yuja Wang, Eugenia Zukerman, Shai Wosner, and Stefan Jackiw. His discography includes Lee Pui Ming, She comes to shore, with Bay-Atlantic Symphony (Naxos/Innova) and Xinjiang Philharmonic (Tian Xian label).

Find out more about Mr. Gaylin at jedgaylin.com.